Jim Otto on Al Davis

Jim Otto (left) with Al Davis at Otto's induction to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1986.

Pro Football Hall of Fame center Jim Otto had a particularly close relationship with Davis. Here’s what he said in an interview with Chronicle Staff Writer Steve Kroner.

I’ve been loyal to him and he’s always been loyal to me. The passion that he had for people and life was phenomenal, witnessed by his time spent with his

wife when his wife was deathly ill. He never left her side until she came out of her coma. His passion for life was tremendous with regard to everyone, not just his people, but other people, too, that he wanted to help.

In the early to mid-’60s, the passing game. He was very instrumental in the passing game, the wide receivers, the split ends and spreading across the field for the passing game — and going vertical. That was his game. Basically, he also ran the West Coast offense before the West Coast offense was run. We did all that type of stuff. … Bill Walsh got the West Coast offense from us and he took it where he went. Mr. Davis was an innovator of all those things.

He was quite serious in private, too. His sense of humor, he derived it himself. When he wanted to be funny, he would be funny and it was intentional. He was a little different than other people with regard to a sense of humor. He was very much an all-business man: It was football, football, football — and there weren’t too many funny things that happened with football.

People scorned him for his successes. A lot of people don’t like successful people and Mr. Davis has been very successful in the things that he has done. People dislike that very much.

He was a very loyal person. I know a lot of people have said that. (He was) very loyal to me and my family. I’ve had a lot of physical problems since I retired. There were several times when I was very ill. Every time I was ever in the hospital — and I was in the hospital many, many times — he called every day, checked me out, made sure I was all right. Sometimes, I found out later that he was very disturbed by the way I sounded. … Thank God, I’m here and I always came through it. He worried about me and he worried about a lot of different people. That’s the way Mr. Davis was. He was a caring man, very caring man. Many times, he told me how much he loved the Raider fans in Oakland and as we were coming back to Oakland, he couldn’t get back there fast enough.